Free Food

The Lubbock Avalanche Journal published an article about the Summer Food Service Program provided by the South Plains Food Bank. It provides summer meals for children in need at sites like Boys and Girls Clubs, YWCA, and day camps in low income neighborhoods.

Funding for the program comes through the Texas Department of Agriculture and USDA.  Below the online version of the article one person wrote a comment called “Free Food: I sure hope none of their parents have cell phones, cable TV, laptops, brand new cars, drink beer or smoke.” Those aren’t questions we ask of the kids when they come to the sites. All we know is that we want to provide nutritious meals for kids who would do without regardless of what their parents or grandparents have or don’t have.

The term “Free Food” caught my attention. Food Banks and our agencies don’t distribute “free food.” There really is not a free lunch. But there is food freely given.

Roughly 40% of the food we distribute comes through federal programs such as TEFAP. Those programs assist low income children, seniors, homeless, and working families. Like most federal nutrition programs, they reflect our nation’s values that we provide a safety net for the most vulnerable and also support our nation’s farmers to insure food security at a reasonable price for all of us.

But 60% of the food we distribute comes from private donations from individuals, grocers in our community, and national food manufacturers who give through Feeding America. It is food that helps people in our communities —people on the cusp of food security. This food fills the hunger gap when the pantry is empty. Sometimes it’s enough. Sometimes it’s not.

The reasons people are hungry and food and insecure are myriad. Economic forces are at work over which they have no control. People make poor life choices which are totally within their control. There are physical and mental challenges that leave people unable to provide for themselves for a while… or for a life time. We can’t ever solve all the situations that create food insecurity and hunger for our friends and neighbors. But here’s what I know:  if people are hungry, they don’t have the strength to overcome the forces at work on them, robbing them of dignity, hope and the ability to change their lives if they can. You and I can do something to change that.

People give food to the hungry for many reasons, reflecting a range of values. No one makes them do it. It is food freely given much like grace. I’m pretty sure I don’t understand grace… or why people give food to feed their neighbors. But both are freely given and I am grateful.